On November 4, Public Policy Polling released results of a general election presidential poll for Iowa. Question 34 includes Jim Webb as an independent. Those results: Hillary Clinton, Democrat, 41%; Donald Trump, 40%; Jim Webb, 9%, undecided 10%.
On November 3, U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffer ruled that Utah cannot force political parties to let independent voters vote in their primaries. The case had been filed by the Republican Party and the Constitution Party, and is Utah Republican Party v Herbert, 2:14cv-876.
Utah law said parties could exclude independents from their primaries if they wished, but the nominees of such parties could not then have the party label on the November ballot. The decision barely discusses this provision, and simply takes it for granted that no party would be willing to pay that price.
The decision also says that Utah may provide that candidates who have no support at party caucuses must still be allowed to petition onto the general election ballot. However, the decision construes the law to mean that only party members may sign such petitions. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news. The state says it may appeal.
On November 3, at least eight Libertarian Party nominees were elected to partisan local office. Five were in Pennsylvania and three were in Indiana. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this news. Also see IPR here for news about Libertarians who won nonpartisan office.
On November 3, Marnie Glickman was elected to a school board in Marin County, California. See this story. Glickman has a long history of leadership in the Green Party. This is the first time she has been elected to public office. Thanks to GreenPartyWatch and IndependentPoliticalReport for this news.
Sandy Sanders, Jr., has this op-ed in Style Weekly, Richmond, Virginia’s free weekly newspaper. The op-ed criticizes Virginia for its severe definition of political party, one that polled 10% in a previous election. It also criticizes Virginia for having no procedure whereby a group can transform itself into a qualified party before any particular election. Virginia is one of only eleven states that lack any such procedure.
The op-ed focuses on the fact that in the November 3, 2015 legislative election, over half the races had only one candidate on the ballot.
Earlier this year, bills were introduced in the Virginia legislature to cure some of these problems, but the bills did not pass. HB 1463 would have changed the vote for party status from 10% to 4%, and SB 766 would have lowered the non-presidential statewide petitions from 10,000 to 5,000 signatures. The Virginia legislature has a short session in odd years so it is difficult to pass bills in odd years. But the 2016 session will be a longer session and it will be easier to pass reform bills.
